1. Library and Information Services
SOUTH AFRICAN
HIGHER EDUCATION
LIBRARY MERGERS:
WHAT DID THEY ACHIEVE?
15th LIASA Conference
10 October 2013
“Merger policy is seldom merger practice”
Vivian Agyei
Jonathan Jansen

2. ORDER OF PRESENTATION
• Goals for higher education institutional mergers
• General perceptions on mergers
• Aim of the study
• Approach
• Limitations of the study
• Findings
• Conclusions
• Recommendations
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3. An increase in
training and
development of
higher
education staff
An increased
contribution
to the
solution of
social
problems
Improved
use of
financial
and human
resources
GOALS
FOR THE HE
A better
standard
of higher
education
INSTITUTIONAL
MERGERS
Increase
d student
access
Curriculum
restructurin
g
Improved
administrativ
e governance
of higher
education
institutions
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4. GENERAL PERCEPTIONS
ON MERGERS
Traumatic
Government does not follow-up on
implementation of employment equity
Government does not follow up on the
cost of mergers
Government does not follow up on
utilisation of resources
Mergers failed
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5. AIM OF THE STUDY
To assess the success of the
mergers in creating efficient
university of technology
libraries out of the former
technikon libraries w.r.t.
provision ofo
Infrastructure
Financial
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6. (1)
Questionnaire
(5)
Surveyed
areas
(2)
APPROACH
Survey
Monke
y
(3)
(4)
Obtain data
Focus on SA
UoTs formed
from mergers
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7. LIMITATIONS OF THE
STUDY
Small and targeted sample
Not aimed at all staff of the said libraries
The views of the directors may differ
significantly from those of their staff
Some of the directors may or may have not
been in the former technikons
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8. …./ 2 Limitations of the study
Some of the directors may be for or against
the mergers
Survey may not cover the full extent of areas
surveyed in the libraries
Responses were interpreted at face value
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9. FINDINGS
All the libraries surveyed report to academic environments
They have campus/branch libraries ranging in number from
6 to 13
Numbers of students served range from 25,000 to 55,000
All the libraries view UoTs as more demanding
of LIS than technikons
they are universities
they conduct research as a KPA
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10. 66% indicated
that the
design and
population of
their current
organisational
structures
were based on
job retention
for then
existing staff –
thus ignoring
matching
skills with
jobs or needs
Human resources
Only 34% of
those
surveyed
analysed
needs per
campus to
determine
staffing
All met
employment
equity targets
…./ 2 findings
Staff morale
in 66% of the
libraries was
low
• High rates
of
personnel
turnover
• Jobhopping
• Complaints
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11. …./ 3 findings
Human resources
Staff morale in 34% of
the libraries was high
o Taking advantage of
new opportunities
and
o Personal growth
from diverse
cultures
66% of the libraries
were working on realigning
organisational
structures with
institutional
objectives
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12. Financial
resources
COLLECTIO
NS OF
INFORMATI
ON
RESOURCE
S
…./ 4 findings
Funding for library collections
increased since the merger in 66% of
those surveyed
For some, funding stagnated in the
past few years
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13. Financial
COLLECTIO resources
…./ 5 findings
NS OF
INFORMATI
ON
RESOURCE
S
All the libraries allocated 60% of
the budgets to development of
e-resource collections, and
40% to print
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14. …./ 6 findings
Financial resources
OPERATION
AL
BUDGETS
66% of the libraries were not satisfied
with budgets received:
o No formula for allocations
o Expressed needs not provided for
o Allocations had been decreasing
by the year
34% were satisfied with the budget
allocated.
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15. …./ 7 findings
Financial resources
LIBRARY
DEVELOPME
NT
66% of the respondents had not
received funding specifically for library
development since the merger
However, all the libraries had seen
development in one or more of
o integration of information literacy
training into curricula
o statistics collection and analysis
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16. …./ 8 findings
Financial resources
Library development
LIBRARY
DEVELOPME
NT
o establishment of an institutional
repository
o library e-learning for staff
o setting up of e-tutorials
o focused staff development and training
o alignment of library services with
university goals
o postgraduate service with librarians
especially for the purpose
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17. …./ 9 findings
Infrastructure
34% had realised an extension of a library and its
renovation into a modern academic library
66% of the libraries had not realised any improvement in
infrastructure since the merger
None of the libraries perceived existing infrastructure as
adequate.
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18. …./ 9 findings
Whether library mergers enhanced the
efficiency of library services
66% of the participants answered in the
affirmative
* More diverse collections
* A diverse skills base
* The library is regarded by the
institution as a strategic partner in
teaching, learning and research
* “We do things smarter and better”
For 34%, there was
misalignment between
resourcing the libraries
and the expectation of
fulfilling objectives
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19. CONCLUSION
Only 34% of those surveyed
has seen improvement in
the provision of human and
financial resources since the
merger
There has not been
improvement in the
provision of human or
financial resources to 66%
of the libraries since the
merger
None of the surveyed
libraries had seen
improvement in the
infrastructure
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20. CONCLUSION
The majority of the libraries plan to re-engineer
their environments to
o
o
Better align organisational structures,
services and
human resources deployment with
the demands of provision of service to a
university of technology
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21. RECOMMENDATIONS
Institutions should include libraries in their
submissions for infrastructure for research
support
With respect to research support, the government
expects institutions to have appropriate ‘research
infrastructure in terms of library holdings’ (CEPD
2001: 68). They acknowledge that building
research capacity and infrastructure may take
time and depends on availability of resources.
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22. …/2 Recommendations
Institutions should include libraries in their
submissions for redress projects; e.g. IEF grants
Government acknowledged that successful
implementation of the National Plan for Higher
Education was dependent on securing adequate
funding for restructuring and re-engineering, in
particular, for redress purposes.
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23. …/3 Recommendations
Government should introduce mechanisms to ensure
alignment of resource provision to institutions with their set
outcomes. Otherwise, mergers will continue to be perceived
as a stumbling block to development in higher education
rather than an enabler that they were meant to be.
Libraries must not let up on trying to get support for
improved funding, re-engineering and infrastructure
development
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24. “Merger policy is seldom merger practice”
Jonathan Jansen
Questions/Comments?
agyeimv@tut.ac.za
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